It is reasonable to say that one of the most widely interpreted and poorly perceived definitions within I.T. is the expression 'Web Designer'. Web Design includes lots of distinctive facets, & an understanding of these facets may help anyone wanting to get in to the marketplace. Fundamentally, there are two principal areas to web-design; the creative element & the technical process. To the average man or women on the street, a 'web designer' is somebody that creates the look & feel of a website. Many of us may consider a 'web designer' a form of artist. In reality the modern web-designer's job is an inter-related mix of technical know-how and design-creativity - & the two things are becoming very hard to split up. We'll illustrate this with more clarity when we break web-design up into its different parts.

Firstly, we've got graphic-artists, that design & build the graphic icons & pictures which you see on a web-site. Most are not strictly web-site designers as such, & generally are multi-media artists utilising graphic layout and 'animation' software, (such as Adobe 'Photoshop' and Adobe 'Flash'.) The majority have come from further education, with typically a degree-level art qualification. Clearly, this particular work requires a good artistic flair.

Web-designers are second - these people work with design-software such as Dreamweaver to plan & design the appearance and 'feel' of the web site. Through the use of visuals from the artist, they will build the navigational framework of the web site, working together with the clients to ensure that the feel is correct. An amateur web designer often starts with the 'form' of the website, rather than the function. But, to actually produce a valuable site, you must begin with a clear understanding of what you need the web-site to actually do. It's possible its essentially an online catalogue, or an e-commerce web-site where goods can be purchased directly. Or potentially it will have a lot of video & graphics. On the other hand it might be largely an info website, where it is necessary to provide simple access to specific web pages of wording. Whatever the customer would like from a web-site, the basic prerequisite is that it actually meets the basic needs. People will give up on a website & not return if it is too difficult to get around - however pretty it looks at first glance. A good web designer must basically produce an on-line experience that's both fulfilling and intuitive for the people coming to the site - then they will come back again and again.

Many of these tasks can and certainly do crossover obviously, we are involved with a number of free-lance web-designers who each cover most of the above roles. It will take time however to acquire such a range of commercial competencies. An appropriate commercial web-design training-program therefore must instruct on several things: A synopsis of the basics of web-design first of all, then directly into using Dreamweaver to a commercial standard & the key nuances of 'Flash' as well. This would then move onto an understanding of HTML & 'CSS', followed by vital insights into the field of e-commerce. To create dynamic web sites it's important to have a grasp of PHP, which is an easier programming-language to get into than ASP.Net. You additionally need a basic understanding of Databases & 'SEO'. The main reason you need each of these elements is they will give you the technical ability to be effective on a variety of website builds. Much like learning to drive, you first have to attain the actual physical competencies, before you effectively push beyond them & achieve an element of 'finesse'. You'd have to allow somewhere around four hundred to five hundred hours to study & competently learn a wide-ranging training program like this - therefore if your plan is to get this done along-side employment it could be completed within 12 months. A skilled advisor will be able to assist you to prepare your way through this quagmire of professional training, and we recommend that you allow time to plan your track carefully before you start your training program.

Supplemental skillsets that are very useful for professional web designers are an understanding of project management & e-commerce. Another field - which is not to be under-estimated - is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). This concerns how to optimize website indexation on Search Engines like 'Google' & 'Yahoo'. And whilst they strictly speaking originate from a network-administration background, we mustn't forget the valuable work of the web-server installers & administrators, who keep everything working in the background.

The most technically-trained website professionals are often the web developers. They will not just know 'HTML', CSS & XML, but will have also learned 'proper' programming languages such as 'PHP', ASP.net, VB, 'C#', 'Java' and the like. They'll also generally have got a solid knowledge of 'SQL' Database technology, because this is how most contemporary substantial websites store their data. In reality, its un-likely that a big E-commerce web site has been built in lay-out format by a bunch of web-site designers. Rather, a place holder 'template' will have been built, and the contents will be dynamically fed from a database. So apart from far better efficiency with the site build, using this method also makes for an infinitely more consistent look and 'feel' as well.

The design-environments utilised by web-site designers are their most important tools. 'Adobe Creative Suite' 4 is really the most commercially accepted in the industry nowadays (as of 2010). Whilst 'Adobe Flash' offers access to animated and interactive graphical content material, Dreamweaver is the software program that builds websites. You could state that 'Dreamweaver' is the Word Processor of the Adobe CS series. Text and graphics can be placed (within known parameters) & then a basic interactivity can be created through page-linking. 'HTML' ('Hyper Text Markup Language') program-coding is developed in the background with 'Dreamweaver', just like any other web design-environment. 'HTML' is a script which in essence 'draws' & controls the page on your screen. It's the 'language' of browsers. Associated with HTML are the lay-out tag 'languages' like CSS and XML. As they are standardised, these can work on multiple platforms to allow more streamlined HTML coding and more effective layout techniques. So whatever web browser somebody uses, (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera or anything else.) the web page will hopefully look exactly the same. As a result the graphic-blocks you are placing & the text you're including is being converted into coding behind the scenes by Dreamweaver. A well-rounded knowledge of these languages is vital if you're to become a commercially viable web-designer.

Its vital to realise that even the most effective web design programs can only teach you the methods and procedures - none of them will be able to turn you in to a bona fide web designer. Throughout your study and training, you should spend time constructing & creating as many web sites as you possibly can, to practice and assemble your portfolio. Your web sites can be about anything you like - your local music-scene, horses, an author you like or cars. Start interactive websites & create traffic on to them. All this will appear more favourable on your Curriculum Vitae, and in your portfolio, than a document from 'Adobe' will!

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